Dec 1, 2009: Curtain Door

[Pie]

Originally Posted by glatt

It's a cool looking door, but doesn't look very weather tight. I can see light shining through the gaps on the sides, even where it's closed. It must be interior. The weather would come right through.

A lot of architecture in India is rather open. The climate favors breezes and central courtyards, open to the wind and rain.

Originally Posted by Klaus-Peter Gast

The courtyards also take up an old Indian architectural motif whereby the courtyard provides light and air for the rooms directly in this hot climate, and people are able to spend time outside or inside according to the time of day. The courtyard is also the classical symbol of something shared, a place where people meet, spend time with each other and live together. This aspect is emphasised in the courtyard for the general public, which is placed immediately inside the entrance and constructed in the form of a Kund, a large area of stone steps. Here people spend their waiting time together almost as if in a state of communal meditation. A waiting area that would be completely inconceivable in Western culture functions as a “think tank” here, with the ambience of waiting stimulating communal reflection.